


The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s13,2: What [Must] We [Must] Do

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [92]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Civil War, Consequences, Gen, Gods, Legends, Origin Myths, Other, Protests, Russia, Smoking, Unreliable Narrator, Volskaya Industries (Overwatch), Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 12:17:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20114992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: Alliances, it has been said, are at their weakest on the brink of defeat, and on the brink of victory. After defeating the China Sea omnium, the gods of Oasis offered their help to Russia, to defeat their own Siberian threat, and Russia accepted that offer -  but made additional secret plans of their own.Since the Tsars, power has flowed from Moscow, and Russians have obeyed. But now, as Moscow demands that the Vishkar developments and all influences of the “Gods” be purged, more and more question - Why?Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflictis a continuance ofThe Arc of Ascension,The Arc of Creation, andThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. To follow the story as it appears,please subscribe to the series.





	The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s13,2: What [Must] We [Must] Do

**Author's Note:**

> dirtyclaws has launched [a public fan-run _Of Gods and Monsters_ discord server](https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT) and invites everyone to come join it. ^_^

Arkady Feyodorovich looked unhappy.

Sitting at his desk, in his office, at his station, late at night, the lights a bit dim, the new orders on his desk, Arkady Feyodorovich looked _quite_ unhappy as he lit another cigarette.

The more he thought about the situation, the more stupid it became in his eyes. Not just stupid, no - nonsensical.

Perhaps, _perhaps_ the acts against the Oasis agents had very well been necessary. He could see that. After all, one of the many reasons for the housing shortage in the city had been the damage caused by the omnium in the First Omnic War, and by strikes made against it early on in the renewed fighting. Perhaps that...

...betrayal...

He didn't like to think of it as a betrayal. It was, though. He knew it was. He did not like it, but he knew it. Just as he knew what had happened out east, at the Far Eastern Federal University. He did not like to think about that, either.

But he did think of it.

He'd found himself thinking more and more of late. The more hours he wasted in the Vishkar development "coordinating the search," the more time he seemed to have to think. It's not like there was anything else to do.

In the past, he might've diverted himself with some game on his phone. Paperwork, perhaps, on his tablet. There was always more paperwork. But lately, he was thinking about... everything, really. He wasn't entirely sure what to do about that - too much thinking is not the job of a police chief, not when he was responsible to Moscow. One took orders. One executed them.

And besides, the motives were reasonable. The omnium could not be trusted in the hands of _anyone_. Not even Oasis. Not even _Russia._ After all, it had been theirs once, and everyone knew how that worked out, didn’t they?

But what that had to do with a housing development, he simply could not fathom.

His daughter told him in no uncertain terms that she wasn't moving. By the next day she'd told the entire tenant's union about orders she shouldn't even have known about, and they'd all - to a one - quietly prepared for an occupation.

Frankly, he couldn't blame them. But still... there was Moscow. And Moscow's orders, which Moscow expected to be obeyed.

_Wait_, he thought. _Wait. I know. Do I?_

He grabbed his tablet off his desk, and started searching for emergency regulations, regulations applicable whenever war powers were in effect.

_Appropriations, appropriations... where are you... Ah, **there**._

Emergency Management and Response Operations, Special Circumstances, Section IV. Temporary appropriation of property for situation response management.

No specified time limit. No specified maximum. No specified fitness requirements. With the Vishkar representative unlikely to return any time soon, given the - well, given the _situation_ \- her apartment would be open. He wouldn't even have to kick anyone out.

He pulled the paperwork necessary to appropriate the facility under Section IV, carefully defining the property as one large unit, and the required space as one, small, unit.

And just like that - at least, on paper - there was no Vishkar property to destroy. There was a police facility, to be occupied by police forces, for the purpose of situation response management. And if they really only needed one four-room apartment, so much the better.

For the first time in two weeks, Arkady Feyodorovich did not look unhappy as he took a deep drag on his Belomors.

_It will be nice,_ he thought, _to be so close to my daughter again_.

At that, he even smiled.

\-----

Katya Volskaya looked unhappy.

Only a handful of the Vishkar developments had come down. Moscow and St. Petersburg had gone smoothly enough. But afterwards...

The former occupants were angry, protesting. The government was providing relocation aid, of course, and the hotels and temporary housing being offered were genuinely excellent, some of the best the Republic had to offer...

...and it didn't matter. For some reason, it didn't matter.

Even the Duma, so supine as of late, had begun demanding explanations, in backchannel. For the moment, they were accepting of "national security" issues, and certain trusted high-level leaders in the ruling coalition had been told more, and so, were keeping their caucuses in line - but the backbenchers kept grumbling, more loudly by the day.

All that was bad enough, but the survey was far, far worse.

Most of the developments still stood. In reality, if not on paper. Local authorities making excuses, or giving reasons, or claiming that as properties had been legally seized under one authority or another, that they were no longer Vishkar developments, and as such, did not fall under the order at all.

In some of the cities - particularly those still damaged from the most recent war, or the war before that, she could understand.

Those pretending to obey, but finding clever ways to do so without actually displacing people - that could be handled. As long as the forms were maintained, as long as there was perhaps inconvenient or even downright malicious compliance, on paper, then it was no challenge to Moscow. Making the impossible work - or at least appear to work - formed a long and proud part of the history of Russia, even back to the old Soviet era, and before, to the Czars.

That much was normal, even if the widespread nature of it was not.

What made her unhappy were the outright refusals.

Even within that, there were variants. Cities and towns without other housing options were, again, something which could be understood. One local mayor told her straight up that she wanted to do it, and would, but it would be the end of her career if she went along, could Moscow please send some tanks and take care of the problem?

This she understood, and the tanks requested were sent, and the protests were ignored, and subverted, and blamed on looters and malcontents, as always. This, too, was something generally understood.

But then there were the others.

The others who just refused.

Russia was a Federation. Most people outside Russia, and some people inside Russia, ignored that. But it was still true, and every politician lived in acute awareness of that reality. Russia was many people, and many _peoples_, tied together in a multiethnic state, sometimes strongly, sometimes tenuously, and no fraying of those ties could be risked. It would cost too much - far too much - were it to fall apart.

That, too, was manageable. A threat seen before, and met, and handled, in one of many different ways.

But these had been _Russians_. Formerly reliable, formerly trusted, _Russians_.

And she had no idea what to do about that.

\-----

Aleksandra Zaryanova looked unhappy.

The video of the protests - or riots, depending upon the reporter - played, silently, in the gym, as she ran on her treadmill.

It was not much of a gym. No, that is a lie; it was the best, most equipped, heaviest-weights power-building gym in Central America, and it stood equal with nearly any gymnasium in the world. Every one, in fact - except, of course, one in Oasis.

But that could be addressed. When she began to be worried about her lack of real exertion, she had called Hana, who had arranged to have one particular combination machine transported to her, and set up in an outreach office, in a room next to another small room where the local staff had set up what looked disturbingly like a small shrine, or, more accurately, a couple of small shrines, one to D.va, and one to Mercy, which also, somehow, had some pictures of Michael as well.

Last time she had looked, a third, a smaller one, to Lena, had appeared.

That was new. She did not like thinking about it, either. But it all paled next to her sadness at what she saw on screen.

_Russian_, she thought, _against Russian_.

It had happened before, of course. Many times. The _Rodina_ was no less capable of civil strife - of civil _war_ \- than anyone else. But to happen again, so soon, so quickly after victory in Siberia...

_Even a tainted victory is still a victory, after all. Isn't it?_

She slowed her run on the treadmill, and let it come to a stop, as she watched the new footage continue to roll, unabated.

_Both sides are right_, she thought, _but also wrong. And, and, and, and... both sides are **Rus**_, she thought, trying not to fall into tears.

_This **cannot** go on. But what... what can I **do?**_

\-----

> _It is said - and this may and may not be true - that it all began one day when a Mayor, a Police Captain, and a Police Major in far-away Moscow all looked deeply, deeply unhappy._
> 
> _"The order is illegal," the Police Captain said, and the Mayor next to him agreed._
> 
> _"The order **is** legal," the Police Major replied. "And served through proper channels."_
> 
> _"The omnium is destroyed. We are no longer in a state of war," the Mayor insisted. "The order is invalid." The Police Captain next to her agreed._
> 
> _"The declaration has not been rescinded, and we are in conflict with the terrorists in Oasis," the Police Lieutenant Colonel replied. "The order stands."_
> 
> _"We know what this is really about," the Mayor said, as the Police Captain next to her nodded agreement._
> 
> _"What it's about is the threat from Oasis and their sympathisers. But even were it not, that would be irrelevant," the Police Colonel said. "It is an order, from Moscow, and will be obeyed."_
> 
> _"It will not," the Police Captain said. "We **know what you did**," the Mayor, standing next to him, added._
> 
> _"What?" the dismayed Police Major General replied. "What who did?"_
> 
> _"What happened in Siberia," said the Mayor. "What the Army did," said the Captain._
> 
> _"We destroyed the omnium!" the dismayed Police Lieutenant General replied. "How does this have anything to do with anything?"_
> 
> _"You committed treachery against those who had come to help us," said the Mayor, and, again, the Police Captain agreed._
> 
> _"We did what was necessary," the Police Colonel General said, "to defeat the omnium, and save Russia. Sometimes sacrifices must be made."_
> 
> _"You betrayed of the Hero of Russia," said the Police Captain. "You betrayed those who came to help us," said the Mayor. "And the real story of the attack on Far Eastern University," the Police Captain added, "we know that, too."_
> 
> _"How?" the General of the Police of the Russian Federation asked. "**How?!**"_
> 
> _"The **gods** told us."_

**Author's Note:**

> This is the twenty-first instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict_, and concludes the first movement of that arc. To follow the story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


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